Question: dependency on unf_ext needed?

[ab]

I recently added a dependency on http-cookie to rest-client in order to better implement RFC compliant handling of cookies.

One issue that a large number of users seem to be running into is the dependency on unf_ext, which requires installing C compilers and libraries that otherwise would be unnecessary. Would there be any way to get a pure ruby solution here?

See rest-client/rest-client#371, for some example discussion.

[knu]

First of all, thanks for using http-cookie, and I regret any inconvenience it caused you and your users.

Ruby started to offer Unicode Nomalization starting from 2.2, so there would be a chance of getting the dependency on the native extension optional for Ruby >=2.2. All you have to do is define a version-specific dependency in a gemspec, and the easiest way would be to make unf_ext stop compiling itself and instead providing just a wrapper for the built-in Unicode Normalization API of Ruby. However, that's not ideal because it just takes away the alternative implementation of UN from the newer versions of Ruby. I'll have to find out a better way.

[knu]

I've just rolled out unf-0.2.0.beta1, which only builds and uses unf_ext on Ruby <2.2. If the trick used is proven to work, there's going to be an official release.

[bricedurand]

Not sure where I should post this but this discussion it's close enough so I'm commenting here.

I have a Rails app that has a dependency to rest_client 1.8.0. It has a dependency to domain_name 0.5.24, which depends on unf_ext 0.0.7.

Problem is unf_ext 0.0.7 has been yanked from rubygems a few days ago, so my deployment fails when trying to get this gem. I had to go back to an earlier version of rest-client (1.6.7) to fix it.
I'm guessing other gems depending on domain name 0.5.24 might face this issue.

[knu]

What gem has the fixed dependency on unf_ext 0.0.7? domain_name 0.5.24 has gem.add_runtime_dependency("unf", ["< 1.0.0", ">= 0.0.5"]) in its gemspec.
https://rubygems.org/gems/domain_name/versions/0.5.24

[knu]

...And unf does not name any specific version of unf_ext.
https://rubygems.org/gems/unf

[bricedurand]

Yeah that surprised me as well but 0.0.7 is the version set after running bundle install.
Anyway no big deal I worked around it, just letting you know.

[knu]

@bricedurand Ah, I didn't read your comment carefully. I feel really sorry for that, as unf_ext 0.0.7 had been there only for a couple of hours until I uploaded 0.0.7.1. Please try gem update unf_ext and then bundle update unf_ext or something like that next time.

[knu]

I haven't answered the original question. The answer is yes; DomainName is a library to deal with domain names including IDN/IDNA, so it must perform Unicode Normalization in NFC and NFKC as required by the related RFCs and Unicode Specification.

[ab]

Got it, that makes sense. (http-cookie and domain_name are both really great, by the way.)

I'll give it a try on ruby 2.2.

[databus23]

@knu any plans on bumping unf 0.2.0 from beta to stable? its been almost a year now.

[ab]

👍

[knu]

Actually in 2.2 Ruby introduced a built-in library called unicode_normalize, so I think next time I major-update those gems dropping support for ruby <2.2, I'd rather drop the dependencies. Ruby-unf(_ext) has served its purpose.